The latest co-production of Tadlow Music and Prometheus Records brings music from a 1967 western, Hour of the Gun, by the composer of Rio Conchos, Stagecoach¸ Rio Lobo and Wild Rovers. The legendary Jerry Goldsmith brought a new musical sensibility to this early revisionist western, directed by John Sturges as a follow-up to his Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. With Hour of the Gun, Goldsmith was walking in the shadow of the Gunfight score by Dimitri Tiomkin, and although he followed his distinguished older colleague’s lead in composing a score which derives much of its material from a single theme, the similarity ends there. Whereas Tiomkin’s music for Gunfight is generous and effusive, Goldsmith’s score for Hour is sparse and transparent – a refreshing and remarkably original take on the traditional western score.

The first in a series of newly recorded classic Goldsmith scores, this new CD contains the complete music from Hour of the Gun (57 minutes) in stunning and dynamic digital sound, performed by the acclaimed City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Nic Raine. As a bonus, the CD also includes the concert suite adapted by David Newman from Goldsmith’s Emmy Award-winning score to The Red Pony (1973)—a classic evocation of Americana.

Produced by James Fitzpatrick for Luc Van De Ven’s Prometheus Records, Hour of the Gun comes with a 16-page booklet including notes by Fitzpatrick and Frank K. DeWald and session photos.